I meant to do my work

I’ve been feeling a lot like this lately…I know I’m supposed to be doing something, but it doesn’t get done…and I can’t say that it bothers me. I actually caught myself talking to a butterfly yesterday and a bird today. And I just had to giggle. (So what could I do but laugh and go?)

And it’s not like I don’t have the time to get things done. Life feels like a daydream these days…so this is my nod to daydreams.

We’re going way, way back in the catalog for this one, 1971 if I recall correctly. From the soundtrack to the movie Friends, this one is called “I Meant to Do my Work Today (A Day in the Country).”

I meant to do my work today
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree
And a butterfly flitted across the field
And all the leaves were calling me
And the buttercups nodded their smiling heads
Greeting the bees who came to call
And I asked the lizard the time of day
As he sunned himself on a moss grove
And the wind went sighing over the land
Tossing the grasses to and fro
And a rainbow held out its shining hand
So what could I do but laugh and go

It is based on a poem by Richard Le Gallienne, an English author and poet. The bolded text above was not part of the original poem…apparently it was added (by BT?) to make the piece a little longer. I think he did a great job matching the imagery and tone, don’t you?

I believe that Paul Buckmaster wrote the score to this track and the rest of the album. To be honest, I’m not sure what role EJ had in this particular piece (the words are read by the two main actors in the film), but no matter, it fits my mood these days. Take a listen.

This is Mr. Le Gallienne’s poem, published in 1913 in the anthology “The Lonely Dancer and Other Poems” (as best I can tell). Lovely, absolutely lovely:

I meant to do my work today—
   But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
   And all the leaves were calling me. 

And the wind went sighing over the land,
   Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand—
   So what could I do but laugh and go?